Latest / Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews / A Castle of our Own

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A Castle of our Own · Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews

0:11
Speaker 1: Welcome to Girls Gone Hamewark, a Hallmark review podcast. I'm
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Speaker 1: Megan and I'm a longtime Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm
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Speaker 1: a former Hallmark hater. On today's episode, we are discussing
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Speaker 1: a Castle of our Own, which originally aired on the
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Speaker 1: Hallmark Channel on June twenty seventh, twenty twenty sixth, and
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Speaker 1: is now streaming on Hallmark Plus. Hey, if you want
0:30
Speaker 1: to keep up with us, we are Girls Gone Hallmark everywhere.
0:34
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0:37
Speaker 1: can find us on Blue Sky, on threads, on Facebook,
0:40
Speaker 1: where we even have an awesome group. We are Girls
0:44
Speaker 1: Gone Hallmark. Hey. If you want more from us Megan
0:48
Speaker 1: and Wendy, come follow us on Patreon, Patreon, dot com,
0:52
Speaker 1: slash Megan and Wendy. We're just the inside baseball of
0:57
Speaker 1: how our brains take over there. Yeah, you know, with
1:01
Speaker 1: a side of complaint and crash out. It's a light sprinkling.
1:05
Speaker 1: I always laugh because we have a recurring episode called
1:08
Speaker 1: What's Good, and it's usually like what's bad in Wendy's world.
1:14
Speaker 1: It's like, let's open the petty complaint department a little
1:16
Speaker 1: bit totally. I love it. It's my favorite. All right,
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Speaker 1: Let's jump into a Castle of our own with a synopsis.
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Speaker 1: When an overworked architect takes an unexpected summer trip, a
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Speaker 1: sand castle contest and a contractor help her reconnect with
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Speaker 1: her daughter, rediscover joy, and find love she never saw coming.
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Speaker 1: This movie was directed by Katio Amechi, an actress and
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Speaker 1: director whose previous directing work includes four short films. This
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Speaker 1: marks her feature length directorial debut. Hallmark fans may also
1:49
Speaker 1: recognize her from Tidings for the Season. She is also
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Speaker 1: a participant in the Hallmark Make Her Mark Awesome pro Graham. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I was just I was like, this name is so unfamiliar.
2:02
Speaker 1: So I was doing a little googling this morning and back.
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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, she was announced as one of
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Speaker 1: the women to participate in the directing program Nice Hey O.
2:17
Speaker 1: This story comes from Jason Delaney. This appears to be
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Speaker 1: his first Hallmark project, though he's written several Hallmark style
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Speaker 1: romantic movies. The teleplay was by Becky Southwell and Nina Weineman.
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Speaker 1: Becky has nine previous writing credits, including several Gourmet detective
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Speaker 1: mysteries for Hallmark. Nina has thirty nine writing credits most
2:35
Speaker 1: recently All's Fair in Love and Majong. Brennan Elliott plays Adam.
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Speaker 1: We last saw Brennan in the twenty twenty four movie
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Speaker 1: His and Hers, co starring Lacy Shavert. He also appeared
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Speaker 1: in an episode of the series nine to one one
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Speaker 1: back in January of this year. Erica Sarah plays Marley.
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Speaker 1: Erica has fifty five acting credits and her last Hallmark
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Speaker 1: role was in the twenty twenty four of Christmas movie
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Speaker 1: A Dance in the Snow Sarah she hand plays daughter Lily.
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Speaker 1: This is her tenth acting credit and her first project
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Speaker 1: for Homework and Sophie Tom plays niece Page. She's another
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Speaker 1: newcomer with just five previous acting credits. Hey, Wendy, what
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Speaker 1: was your first impression of a Castle of Our Own?
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Speaker 1: I was not prepared for Hallmark to hand me parenting
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Speaker 1: advice wrapped in a beach romance? Did it not hit?
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Speaker 1: The parenting advice didn't hit for you?
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Speaker 2: No?
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Speaker 1: I did I have a lot to say about the
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Speaker 1: parenting in this movie? All good? Actually? Oh? Oh oh, okay? Interesting? No?
3:41
Speaker 1: I thought it was good advice. Yeah, yeah, me too.
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Speaker 1: It was all of it was very timely for me
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Speaker 1: as a mom to a teenager and you a teenager
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Speaker 1: girl too, so yeah, yeah, yeah, you know I this
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Speaker 1: just had Nina Whynement all over it. Doesn't she have
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Speaker 1: a teenage daughter? Yeah, she just kids. I think she
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Speaker 1: gets it. My first impression is hand me a glass
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Speaker 1: of lemonade, because I was genuinely refreshed by the cobe
4:07
Speaker 1: parenting situation portrayed in this movie. It's one of my
4:12
Speaker 1: biggest likes about it. Nice. Yes, let's get into our
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Speaker 1: likes then if I can start, please. I thought this
4:21
Speaker 1: was a really lovely movie to wrap up the Summer
4:26
Speaker 1: Nights lineup, and if I look at Summer Nights as
4:29
Speaker 1: a whole, we kind of got like a sprinkling of
4:32
Speaker 1: a variety of things. Yes, I think of Texas two
4:36
Speaker 1: Step and how like steaming hot that was, and then
4:39
Speaker 1: how fun the Love Heist was. What was the first
4:43
Speaker 1: movie the Greek Aisle? Oh, I love that one too,
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Speaker 1: So like this was nice. It was like a nice
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Speaker 1: sprinkling of different stories across the month. While watching this movie,
4:54
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this is a soft landing in
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Speaker 1: the best possible about it. There's no huge drama, there's
5:02
Speaker 1: no like over the top. I mean I have some thoughts,
5:05
Speaker 1: but there's no over the top hook here. It just
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Speaker 1: felt like a cozy movie. But for me, the setting
5:13
Speaker 1: absolutely does so much of the heavy lifting. I know
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Speaker 1: they call it Cannon Cove, Organ Megan just went to
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Speaker 1: Cannon Beach. I'm guessing it's supposed to be the same place.
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Speaker 1: I have to assume it's obviously not filmed there, but no, yes,
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Speaker 1: that's where I was last week and there was a
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Speaker 1: sand castle competition the day after we were leaving. Oh bummers.
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Speaker 1: So I have to assume this had to have been inspired, right.
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Speaker 1: I feel like maybe the writer was like, Oh, I'm
5:43
Speaker 1: on vacation in this lovely Oregon coastal town, and look
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Speaker 1: they have a sand castle competition. Like it can't be coincidental.
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Speaker 1: It was last weekend that they had their sand castle competitions.
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Speaker 1: Yeah during the summer. Yeah, yes, well, you know, like
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Speaker 1: the gorgeous homes and then like I'm not a big
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Speaker 1: fan of like the misty skies during summer. I know
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Speaker 1: that's your vibe totally, but it was appealing to me.
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Speaker 1: It was like a place that I would love to
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Speaker 1: spend a week kicking around their small town, drinking coffee
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Speaker 1: and looking at bookstores and watching sand castles be built, right.
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Speaker 1: I was into it. Yeah, I was too. I mean
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Speaker 1: it was timely for me. We obviously were just in
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Speaker 1: the actual Cannon Beach and every time we go and
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Speaker 1: what we've been three times, but we always end up
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Speaker 1: like looking at local real estate because I'm like, I
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Speaker 1: actually don't think I could live live in a small
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Speaker 1: town forever, but it does have an appeal where you're like,
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Speaker 1: I just want to be the kind of person who
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Speaker 1: walks into town to my local coffee shop, you know,
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Speaker 1: and this is my morning. I walk along the beach
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Speaker 1: and return to my beachfront home where I I think
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Speaker 1: it sounds pretty damn amazing shore. I edited up podcast
6:51
Speaker 1: episode to the Crashing Waves, you know. I mean, look,
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Speaker 1: I it feels very idyllic when you're there, so it
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Speaker 1: worked for me too. Sounds per romantic to me. I'm
7:02
Speaker 1: into it. Yeah, on our side by side beach front home. Oh.
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Speaker 1: I you know that's so funny that you say that
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Speaker 1: because I had pictured myself like living here and you
7:15
Speaker 1: living there none that you had to join me. The
7:18
Speaker 1: sun came out while we were there. It is too cold.
7:22
Speaker 1: I could never ever ever live in the Pacific Northwest.
7:26
Speaker 1: No shade, but literally no shade. I mean no, I
7:30
Speaker 1: guess there is too much shade, too much shade for me. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved it. I did think I
7:36
Speaker 1: was like, oh, hone, you would hate it because it
7:37
Speaker 1: was cold the entire time we were there. But anyway,
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Speaker 1: couldn't do it. Back to the movie, Back to my
7:43
Speaker 1: first impression. I loved this depiction of a co parenting situation.
7:47
Speaker 1: I feel like Hallmark is like just very gently recently
7:51
Speaker 1: stepping into divorce as a reality, and it's nice to
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Speaker 1: see it where there's no villain, there's no great tragedy
8:02
Speaker 1: associated with it or trauma. This is just this is
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Speaker 1: what happened in their relationship. They coexist alongside the step
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Speaker 1: parent very nicely. There's no uncomfortability when the daughter has
8:15
Speaker 1: to introduce like dad and stepmom to mom's new friend, like,
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Speaker 1: it's just it's easy, it's fine. And the co parents
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Speaker 1: are not only on the same page about their daughter,
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Speaker 1: but they're also both there for each other. It's just
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Speaker 1: so nice and easy. And when he can't make it,
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Speaker 1: she's kind of like, oh, I'm gonna have to juggle things.
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Speaker 1: But she's not like oh you always do this, you
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Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like they're both in the same boat,
8:39
Speaker 1: and he figures out a way to help her get
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Speaker 1: her fresh. It's just so nice. Yeah, I agree, Like,
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Speaker 1: let's please continue to normalize healthy co parenting. And it's
8:56
Speaker 1: funny that you say, like Hallmarks seems to be tipped
9:00
Speaker 1: going into that space where there's no like big tragedy
9:03
Speaker 1: we're not or trauma. Yes, And I was like laughing.
9:07
Speaker 1: I felt like divorce is more realistic than maybe perhaps
9:13
Speaker 1: like a widow situation. Yes, I mean I don't I
9:18
Speaker 1: don't know the data, but gotta be more common. It's
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Speaker 1: fifty percent of marriages end in death before the age
9:23
Speaker 1: of fifty, No, but fifty percent of marriages and a divorce,
9:26
Speaker 1: yeah they do. Yeah, So I mean, let's just do
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Speaker 1: more of that. I've loved I love that everyone is
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Speaker 1: just trying to raise a great kid together. That's like
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Speaker 1: their objective. I really enjoyed the relationship between Marley and
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Speaker 1: the ex in terms of like supporting each other, and
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Speaker 1: at one point even said like, well, he was my
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Speaker 1: best friend for fifteen years, Like we forget that kind
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Speaker 1: of stuff. I think I just I thought it was great.
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Speaker 1: I thought it was great. I yes, agree with all
10:05
Speaker 1: of that. Can we talk about Lily. Yeah, I'm going
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Speaker 1: to talk about Lily's friend situation. I think when she
10:13
Speaker 1: has the moment of realizing I don't think my friends
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Speaker 1: are my friends? Yes, that hit so hard because do
10:22
Speaker 1: you know that, Tikott and girl, I do. Yes, I
10:24
Speaker 1: feel like I've lived this the last two years with
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Speaker 1: my own teenage daughter. Well, and I think, I think
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Speaker 1: that's such a moment because if you've gone to school
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Speaker 1: with the same people, sometimes like your friends stay the same,
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Speaker 1: and you realize, oh, we've all changed and not in
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Speaker 1: the same direction. And these people that I call my
10:42
Speaker 1: friends because I've known them for so long aren't a
10:45
Speaker 1: fit for me anymore. It's like such a hard thing
10:48
Speaker 1: to realize, I think. But I have actually have like
10:52
Speaker 1: one wish when it comes to this. But I kind
10:54
Speaker 1: of like that it's a little bit messy, like there's
10:56
Speaker 1: no nice neat bow on this situation. Like she does
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Speaker 1: make a new friend, she realizes like what life can
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Speaker 1: be like with people who actually like her but pour
11:07
Speaker 1: her and into the same things that they're yes too, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: but I also think sometimes it's like, yeah, this lesson
11:15
Speaker 1: is a hard one to learn. The only way out
11:18
Speaker 1: is through. You just kind of have to trudge through
11:20
Speaker 1: this uncomfortable space of growing up. Yeah. The other takeaway too,
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Speaker 1: from that particular part of the storyline, You know, Lily
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Speaker 1: was very invested on like what was going on on
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Speaker 1: her phone, yeah, media and seeing all the stuff happening
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Speaker 1: without her, And I was like that, damn freaking phone
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Speaker 1: and social media. I swear to God, Megan, you and
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Speaker 1: I grew up in a much easier time. Something else
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Speaker 1: about Lily you wanted to add? No, I mean I
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Speaker 1: enjoyed her as a character. I thought she was cute.
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Speaker 1: I like their I like their mother daughter relationship. I
11:55
Speaker 1: thought it was fairly realistic. Okay, well let's talk about
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Speaker 1: eric Aci. Okay. I really enjoy her acting. Me too.
12:04
Speaker 1: I know that some podcasts have like mentioned her raspy
12:09
Speaker 1: voice in a negative way, yes, as being a distraction.
12:13
Speaker 1: I like it me too. I like it a lot.
12:18
Speaker 1: But aside from that, I you know, this character, I
12:21
Speaker 1: thought the actress Erica really portrayed a mom either we've
12:27
Speaker 1: been or have known. You know, she's stretched a little thin,
12:33
Speaker 1: she's trying to be everything to everyone, and she realizes
12:36
Speaker 1: her teenage daughter doesn't need her the same way anymore,
12:40
Speaker 1: Like you know, her time has running thin. Yes, I
12:45
Speaker 1: felt very relatable and as I mentioned earlier, as a
12:48
Speaker 1: mom of a teenager, this storyline really hit me. What
12:53
Speaker 1: I liked especially is that there was this lesson of
12:58
Speaker 1: just listen to and not don't try to fix it,
13:02
Speaker 1: don't don't plan the perfect bonding activity, you know, just
13:09
Speaker 1: it just was a nice reminder for someone like me
13:13
Speaker 1: who jumps into let's fix it mode when my kid
13:18
Speaker 1: is having like an issue. Sure, you know what I mean.
13:21
Speaker 1: I liked it. I liked I liked the character a lot.
13:24
Speaker 1: I like the character a lot too, And I think
13:26
Speaker 1: she starts off thinking like, if we could just be together,
13:31
Speaker 1: that will solve all of our problems. And then she
13:34
Speaker 1: has to adjust a little bit, realizing that one hundred
13:38
Speaker 1: percent of a week with her mom isn't what she needs,
13:41
Speaker 1: Like she needs a little freedom to be herself and
13:43
Speaker 1: find her own space. And she, you know, she's a
13:47
Speaker 1: little bit like, well, I thought we were going to
13:48
Speaker 1: spend time together. But then she quickly adjusts and is
13:50
Speaker 1: happy that her daughter is having her needs met. So
13:54
Speaker 1: it was just nice. How about Brennan Elliott. Welcome back,
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Speaker 1: Brennan Elliott. What are your thoughts? I actually really enjoyed him.
14:02
Speaker 1: I think because of our timing with coming to the
14:05
Speaker 1: Hallmark Universe, Brennan Elliott is not at the forefront of
14:10
Speaker 1: my mind all of the time because I don't think
14:13
Speaker 1: he's While he's been certainly a presence, I don't think
14:16
Speaker 1: he's been. I think he has a stronger Hallmark presence
14:20
Speaker 1: in years before our time. So whenever I see him,
14:26
Speaker 1: it's almost a little bit of a surprise. I thought
14:28
Speaker 1: he played this uncle role. He just was warm and
14:32
Speaker 1: kind and understanding and the kind of person you'd want
14:36
Speaker 1: to have as your next door neighbor. And I just
14:39
Speaker 1: thought he fit this role so nicely. He was just
14:43
Speaker 1: so fun to see on screen. Yeah. I like that
14:47
Speaker 1: he was a little vulnerable, a little little awkward, real
14:53
Speaker 1: with the dad jokes kind of also dad cabbage patch moment. Yeah, funny.
15:00
Speaker 1: I actually have no idea. Many dances when he's like,
15:03
Speaker 1: we're gonna dance and he does like the dad like
15:06
Speaker 1: terrible cabbage patch. Oh do you know what the cabbage
15:10
Speaker 1: patch is? Yeah? I do. That's funny. I like that,
15:14
Speaker 1: like he was not technically like a dad, but build
15:19
Speaker 1: like this awkward dad role. I agree. Yeah, he had strong,
15:23
Speaker 1: like dad joke vibes to him, and also kind of
15:27
Speaker 1: coach vibes. I was noticingly when they were doing the
15:31
Speaker 1: sand castle stuff and you'd be like, okay, everybody gather
15:33
Speaker 1: up here, gether it. You know, yeah, okay, listen, this
15:36
Speaker 1: is what we're gonna do. This is what Anyway, I
15:39
Speaker 1: enjoyed him. I thought this was nice and it's nice
15:40
Speaker 1: to see him back on the channel. In terms of
15:45
Speaker 1: chemistry between his character and Marley. You know, it's not
15:50
Speaker 1: other him and Brendan Penny dancing on the you know,
15:54
Speaker 1: country bar floor or whatever, but it was two adults
15:59
Speaker 1: who seemed to be enjoying their time together. It felt
16:03
Speaker 1: like a realistic depiction of two adults at this phase
16:07
Speaker 1: in their life meeting each other. I think so too.
16:10
Speaker 1: And they didn't have the history of the Heather and
16:12
Speaker 1: Brendan relationship, so for them to come in all steamy
16:15
Speaker 1: would have been at the place. Yeah, oh agree, I
16:18
Speaker 1: was looking to me either, And let me be clear, yeah,
16:21
Speaker 1: I just thought this felt like a very realistic portrayal
16:24
Speaker 1: of two mature adults meeting and mature I mean just
16:28
Speaker 1: grown up. They're not thirty, but they're not seventy, you know, Yes, yeah,
16:35
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. Now, how did you feel about the
16:38
Speaker 1: sand castle competition? Well, it's more in my wishes, okay,
16:44
Speaker 1: so let me just I'm gonna throw a little like here,
16:47
Speaker 1: and I do have it's in my wishes as well.
16:50
Speaker 2: But I I liked the sand castle competition, and not
16:54
Speaker 2: because I was like into the competitive part of it,
16:58
Speaker 2: but it gave these families something to do.
17:02
Speaker 1: While they got to know each other. Yes, it was
17:05
Speaker 1: the vehicle for developing the relationships and it was what
17:09
Speaker 1: it needed to be sure. It's the summer version of
17:12
Speaker 1: decorating cookies and dropping for a Christmas tree. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
17:17
Speaker 1: I liked it for that element too. And in relation
17:21
Speaker 1: to the sand castle competition, can we talk briefly about Gordo?
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Speaker 1: Oh he's in my wishes? Uh oh okay, Well my
17:27
Speaker 1: thoughts on Gordo. I just think he serves as a
17:30
Speaker 1: nice comic relief and my notes just say GTFO Gordo affectionately.
17:36
Speaker 1: I just think it's nice to have this common enemy.
17:39
Speaker 1: I thought he was it was fine, he was not
17:41
Speaker 1: a threat. But I enjoyed him being kind of exasperating
17:46
Speaker 1: as a running joke. It allows us to have this
17:50
Speaker 1: conflict outside of our character so that we don't have
17:53
Speaker 1: to have like manufactured conflict within our characters. You don't
17:57
Speaker 1: think it was manufactured the Well, sure, it's like cartoon villainy,
18:02
Speaker 1: I guess in that sense, but it's not like a
18:07
Speaker 1: I overheard you saying I could never leave this place
18:10
Speaker 1: and now I'm gonna run away in the night. I
18:13
Speaker 1: agree with that, but I just did not think it
18:17
Speaker 1: added anything to the story. Well, why don't we take
18:21
Speaker 1: a quick break and come right back to talk about
18:22
Speaker 1: our wishes? Okay, dope, all right, Wendy, let me know
18:34
Speaker 1: what you wished for. Well, I'll just jump back into
18:36
Speaker 1: the gordo of it all. One. I don't understand that
18:41
Speaker 1: Adam has this random nemesis from years ago over sand
18:46
Speaker 1: castle building. It just is silly to me. Hm. I
18:50
Speaker 1: felt like somebody looked at the script and was like,
18:53
Speaker 1: we need a sea story here, we need this beach rival.
18:56
Speaker 1: Like it does not add anything to the overall story.
19:02
Speaker 1: Like you could cut every single those scenes and the
19:06
Speaker 1: movie loses nothing. Yes, I don't disagree with you. I
19:09
Speaker 1: just I was like, what are we doing here? My
19:13
Speaker 1: other I have a couple of wishes. Yes, The majority
19:18
Speaker 1: of the movie tells us that Marley's really like overwhelmed
19:23
Speaker 1: that work, right, She's constantly checking her phone. She's overwhelmed.
19:28
Speaker 1: Then she's missing moments with her daughter. You know, she's
19:30
Speaker 1: trying to balance it all. And we get Adam who's
19:35
Speaker 1: gently reminding her to slow down and figure out what matters.
19:39
Speaker 1: And then so she quits her job. She quits her
19:44
Speaker 1: job to start her own firm. Girl, what are you thinking?
19:47
Speaker 2: Like?
19:47
Speaker 1: Anybody knows that, and they even say it. Her boss says,
19:53
Speaker 1: you don't realize how much time and effort this is
19:56
Speaker 1: going to take to start your own firm. Right, yes,
20:00
Speaker 1: I'm like, do you have not solved a problem? No?
20:04
Speaker 1: And this entire movie it was almost like two different stories.
20:08
Speaker 1: On one hand, we have slow down and prioritize your family,
20:12
Speaker 1: and then on the other hand is like follow your dream. Yeah.
20:16
Speaker 1: Both are perfectly valid messages, but they don't fit in
20:19
Speaker 1: this movie. And it makes me wonder. I'm a little
20:24
Speaker 1: hesitant to say it because I don't want to offend anybody,
20:26
Speaker 1: but it makes me wonder if Nina was the recipient
20:29
Speaker 1: of this script and had to do some work on it. Mm.
20:32
Speaker 1: We know Nina is like a utility player for homemark,
20:36
Speaker 1: like she's a good cleanup player when they like this script.
20:39
Speaker 1: Whisper Yeah, No, I think that's a good point. There
20:44
Speaker 1: were two warring storylines, and in my head, I'm trying
20:49
Speaker 1: to make it make sense because I think if you
20:51
Speaker 1: think about the reality of Lily, if she's graduating from
20:54
Speaker 1: high school in two years, it doesn't really make sense
20:58
Speaker 1: for mom to slow down because as you well know,
21:02
Speaker 1: like she's life is going to change in two years. Yeah,
21:06
Speaker 1: wait two years until your daughter goes off to college
21:08
Speaker 1: and then make your change. Yeah, that's what I like. Yeah,
21:12
Speaker 1: it would almost have been, like made more sense if
21:15
Speaker 1: she if she had the balls to stand up to
21:18
Speaker 1: her boss and not let her be railroaded, because obviously
21:22
Speaker 1: she was very much necessary at her job, and so
21:25
Speaker 1: it seems to me that in that role she could say, look,
21:29
Speaker 1: I need to put some boundaries on, like I cannot
21:32
Speaker 1: be working like this, definitely see if that, like that
21:36
Speaker 1: would be the natural first step, like let me work
21:39
Speaker 1: a reasonable number of hours, cap it at a reasonable workload,
21:43
Speaker 1: and then yes, work towards and let her know, like, look,
21:47
Speaker 1: my goal is to start my own firm, So why
21:49
Speaker 1: don't we start, like over this next bit of time,
21:51
Speaker 1: ringing in some people to fill the gap that I'm leaving. Yeah,
21:56
Speaker 1: and then they have this ongoing thread of like, we
21:58
Speaker 1: haven't been able to go to Paris, girl, You're not
22:01
Speaker 1: going to Paris in the next two years either, not
22:03
Speaker 1: with starting a business now. That was very frustrating, and
22:08
Speaker 1: I was like, what are we doing here? What are
22:10
Speaker 1: we doing here? Also my next wish. Look, I love
22:14
Speaker 1: Brendan Elliott. I actually really enjoyed his character of Adam
22:17
Speaker 1: to Adam is that his name? Yes, Adam? Okay? Why
22:21
Speaker 1: it just sounded so foreign to me for a second.
22:23
Speaker 1: But it was the same problem that I had in
22:26
Speaker 1: last week's movie, where this man comes in and he's
22:30
Speaker 1: like the unofficial life coach for every aspect of Marley's life.
22:34
Speaker 1: He's got parenting advice and career advice, and he's emotionally supportive,
22:38
Speaker 1: like he had an answer to every question. I would
22:42
Speaker 1: much have rather seen Marlee arrive at some of these
22:45
Speaker 1: conclusions by herself. Yes, And what I really like is
22:51
Speaker 1: your ideas. She should have just put the kabash on
22:55
Speaker 1: the overbearing boss and just say like, hey, we need
22:58
Speaker 1: to rework my schedule here. You know, I wanted Marley
23:02
Speaker 1: to figure out some things on her own without Adam
23:06
Speaker 1: giving her like instruction. Yeah, I'm thinking I totally agree
23:12
Speaker 1: with you, And that's not a point that I had made,
23:14
Speaker 1: but I I agree with that thought process. I'm wondering
23:19
Speaker 1: how we make that happen on screen, Like do they
23:22
Speaker 1: need to have this mirror reflecting these things back to her?
23:26
Speaker 1: Because is she going to be talking to herself? You know,
23:30
Speaker 1: like how is she going to come to these conclusions
23:33
Speaker 1: on her own without bouncing it off somebody somebody? Yeah,
23:38
Speaker 1: I hear you. Yeah, but I agree. I don't want
23:39
Speaker 1: to give all the credit to Adam for simply being like,
23:42
Speaker 1: you know, having his Quippi witticisms and then all of
23:44
Speaker 1: a sudden her life is solved. Yeah exactly, you know, like, yeah,
23:49
Speaker 1: chat gybt, give me thirty bits of life advice that
23:53
Speaker 1: I can throw up on an Instagram image and cycle
23:55
Speaker 1: through the month. I have a really big wish that
23:59
Speaker 1: I want to finish out this category with. But let
24:02
Speaker 1: me hear what else. Uh okay, well, my biggest wish
24:06
Speaker 1: is back to Lily. I feel like her storyline is
24:10
Speaker 1: the least resolved, and in my first I now in
24:15
Speaker 1: my likes, I think that's realistic, Like, this is not
24:18
Speaker 1: something you're going to solve in a week, these friend issues.
24:21
Speaker 1: But she has this significant realization about her friend groups.
24:25
Speaker 1: Her old friends aren't really her people. She does make
24:28
Speaker 1: a new friend in Canon Cove, but they are going
24:31
Speaker 1: back home, which I think makes sense. I'm so glad
24:33
Speaker 1: she wasn't like I'm going to start this new business
24:35
Speaker 1: in this small town where I'm going to have no
24:36
Speaker 1: customers and move my kid away from her father. Obviously
24:38
Speaker 1: it's not going to work. They're going to go back home.
24:41
Speaker 1: But then what now her kid has to work through
24:45
Speaker 1: the mess of finding a new friend group in high school,
24:48
Speaker 1: which is not easy to do. I just thought maybe
24:52
Speaker 1: she was left out in the cold here. You needed
24:55
Speaker 1: some closure with Lily's storyline. I wanted her to be like,
24:58
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just one year later, maybe being
25:02
Speaker 1: at school, maybe president. I don't know. I just I
25:06
Speaker 1: get stuck in the details, of course, and I think, like,
25:08
Speaker 1: how are we going to make that happen? And I
25:10
Speaker 1: think that's harder than we think it's going to be,
25:13
Speaker 1: Like she's she's done the first step, but there's more there. Yeah,
25:17
Speaker 1: well this movie, I mean, is it more about the
25:21
Speaker 1: romance between of course, of course Lily's trajectory of high school.
25:27
Speaker 1: Of course. Here's my biggest wish. Uh huh. Absolutely hated
25:33
Speaker 1: the last minute of this movie on the Beach. Yes,
25:37
Speaker 1: there's why, because this entire run time is building this
25:43
Speaker 1: believable mature romance between these two adults who live in
25:48
Speaker 1: different places, and they have this realistic conversation where they
25:55
Speaker 1: acknowledge like his life is there and hers is back home,
25:57
Speaker 1: and maybe it's just not the right time. They're like,
25:59
Speaker 1: let's just call it, and I respect this conversation. I
26:03
Speaker 1: was like, great. Then literally the next scene, Adam shows
26:09
Speaker 1: up Declarius's love and that's it. Movie's over. Hey he's
26:15
Speaker 1: moving to Seattle. I was like, what. First of all,
26:20
Speaker 1: when he shows up and they're like, oh, there's a
26:23
Speaker 1: surprise for you out on the beach, I was like,
26:24
Speaker 1: whoa mixed messages Like earlier in the day, you're like,
26:27
Speaker 1: let's just call it, and now you're out with your boombox,
26:32
Speaker 1: you know, come on, and you know he's he's now
26:37
Speaker 1: made this big life change, Like he's going to go
26:40
Speaker 1: move to Seattle, and like, you know, it's not that
26:43
Speaker 1: I didn't want them together. I did this just like
26:49
Speaker 1: ninety seconds, and this it I don't know, it just
26:53
Speaker 1: wrapped it all up and done. That's why I'm like,
26:59
Speaker 1: was there some rework king of the script here? I
27:02
Speaker 1: don't know. I didn't love it. I didn't love it. Well,
27:07
Speaker 1: the rest of my wishes are so trite compared to that,
27:10
Speaker 1: which I do fully agree with you. Oh, I know
27:14
Speaker 1: what I was going to say. I do feel like
27:16
Speaker 1: they're both making giant leaps in terms of their business.
27:19
Speaker 1: And I feel like people who I'm guessing these are
27:21
Speaker 1: people in their forties, that's what their life would suggest
27:24
Speaker 1: to me, aren't really like, let me take this giant
27:28
Speaker 1: leap like quit my job, start a business, or move
27:30
Speaker 1: to Seattle and find new customers. Think it through. We
27:35
Speaker 1: need to move a little bit more slowly, Like this
27:37
Speaker 1: is not the phase of life to just be like, well,
27:39
Speaker 1: I'm going to try something new and hope it works out.
27:41
Speaker 1: That was what my thought was. Yeah, but my last
27:46
Speaker 1: little wishes I did want to see more of the
27:49
Speaker 1: finished sand castles. We get a lot of close up
27:52
Speaker 1: detail shots, Yes, and I was like, could we just
27:57
Speaker 1: get like a pullback pan of some of these sand
28:00
Speaker 1: like to see them well, even their project, you know,
28:03
Speaker 1: when she like messes up the one side or whatever
28:06
Speaker 1: and then she comes up with the idea of like
28:08
Speaker 1: how to like build within it or whatever. They don't
28:10
Speaker 1: show it cool. No, I need some sort of payoff, yes,
28:15
Speaker 1: And I know that sand castle art is difficult. Give
28:18
Speaker 1: me some b roll or something. I don't know. I
28:20
Speaker 1: just wanted to see more more sand castles. Am I
28:23
Speaker 1: a jerk? When they're like, we're gonna build pyramids? I
28:25
Speaker 1: was like, really pyramids? That's well, yeah, is that tough?
28:29
Speaker 1: I don't know. And Gordo built like the Sphinx in
28:32
Speaker 1: the first round, so I was like, you're kind of
28:35
Speaker 1: riffing off of his idea. Oh yeah. I was not
28:39
Speaker 1: surprised when the Eiffel Tower suggestion came up. I was like, shocking, seriously,
28:45
Speaker 1: but I thought it would be very difficult, and I
28:47
Speaker 1: think the Eiffel Tower seems to be more difficult than
28:49
Speaker 1: the pyramids they were building. But okay, the Eiffel Tower.
28:53
Speaker 1: I was like, that is a very ambitious project for
28:56
Speaker 1: our first sand castle. Because I get like it's like
29:00
Speaker 1: and they wanted to go to Paris and at tight end,
29:02
Speaker 1: but I really wanted one of the adults to be like, wow,
29:05
Speaker 1: maybe we toad, Like what can we do differently here?
29:10
Speaker 1: I would be considering like Marlee was struggling with the
29:14
Speaker 1: sand castle form, like the bucket is one of the
29:18
Speaker 1: first scenes. You know, now now they're building this. Look,
29:22
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it, so brava to who can. But
29:26
Speaker 1: the Eiffel Tower just seems like a lot of work.
29:28
Speaker 1: I thought so too when Lily like damaged the top
29:32
Speaker 1: of it and like spun out. I was like, oh,
29:33
Speaker 1: that felt so relatable for someone like me, who's like
29:36
Speaker 1: a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like that, I
29:38
Speaker 1: would have been like like whit. Yeah that would have
29:41
Speaker 1: ruined my day. Yeah, totally, let's talk to you to
29:43
Speaker 1: see that. I you know, I wish I had more this.
29:47
Speaker 1: The only thing that I have is I thought Marley
29:51
Speaker 1: had a great wardrobe, but I thought the costume was
29:54
Speaker 1: very aspirational for a woman of her age. I just
29:58
Speaker 1: enjoyed her linen pants and her outfits were real cute. Yeah,
30:04
Speaker 1: she did have cute clothes. I have some random digit
30:07
Speaker 1: see that's First of all, when they're trying to name
30:09
Speaker 1: their team, they're like riffing on sand puns and Adam's like,
30:13
Speaker 1: how about Miami sand Machine And the girls are like, oh,
30:15
Speaker 1: we don't know that, But then they go sand and Deliver.
30:18
Speaker 1: I'm like, how do you know Edward James almost in
30:21
Speaker 1: Stand and Deliver and you don't know Miami Sound Machine.
30:24
Speaker 1: I thought it was odd. The other thing is in
30:27
Speaker 1: my next sand related digit, see that when the pyramid
30:30
Speaker 1: sand castle collapses, that sand has got to be ai.
30:34
Speaker 1: I rewound it five times to watch it fall. It
30:37
Speaker 1: falls in a perfect triangle. I didn't I didn't really
30:44
Speaker 1: watch closely like when it fell, but I was mesmerized, like,
30:48
Speaker 1: how did that just one section come out of it
30:51
Speaker 1: and not destroy anything else? Yes, unless that's the Unless
30:54
Speaker 1: the rest of it isn't actually sand, I don't know.
30:56
Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense to me. There's something I rewatched it.
31:00
Speaker 1: It looks like real sand, but it falls perfectly out
31:04
Speaker 1: of that section. How did you like the whole contraband
31:09
Speaker 1: you know, like people were building sang. I knew that
31:11
Speaker 1: was bad. I knew when they didn't win that they
31:14
Speaker 1: were going to have some like last minute thing I
31:16
Speaker 1: got them in You're smarter than I'm not. I've watched
31:20
Speaker 1: a lot of competition shows where they're like, we didn't
31:23
Speaker 1: make it, and then lo and behold it's glee and
31:26
Speaker 1: they've got a kid that's not the right age on
31:30
Speaker 1: the other team. He's a ringer. You know. It's unfortunately
31:34
Speaker 1: not a novel idea. My last two when they are
31:40
Speaker 1: at least in the second phase of the sand casta competition,
31:42
Speaker 1: they're wearing closed toed shoes of the entire time on
31:45
Speaker 1: the beach, running down to the water like in ten issues.
31:49
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, your socks are full of water now
31:51
Speaker 1: and now you're squishing around uncomfortable. I know they don't
31:55
Speaker 1: want to have their dogs out, but and the last
31:59
Speaker 1: is a did you see that that Eiffel tower scene
32:02
Speaker 1: when Lily breaks it, Adam brushes off the top of it,
32:06
Speaker 1: and then you cut back to that same scene there's
32:07
Speaker 1: another pile of sand there and brushes it off again.
32:11
Speaker 1: Good catch. That's all. What did you rate this movie? Again?
32:16
Speaker 1: Nice soft landing and I thought it was three stars.
32:18
Speaker 1: I gave it three point twenty five stars. Hey, thanks
32:21
Speaker 1: for listening to this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark. If
32:25
Speaker 1: you love this podcast. We do love your five star
32:28
Speaker 1: ratings and reviews. You can drop them right into the
32:30
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast app and we'll be back next time with
32:32
Speaker 1: more Hallmark reviews. Goodbye bye. All right friends, before we go,
32:47
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